Tevita Kuridrani
The Brumbies have been left with a gap in the midfield following news that destructive outside centre Tevita Kuridrani will be sidelined for 2 months with a shoulder injury.
It is just the second major blow to the Brumbies’ injury list this season.
Scans suggested Kuridrani damaged his AC joint in the 13 / 28 loss to the Waratahs at the weekend.
The skilful Wallaby centre will luckily avoid surgery and that could mark an earlier return to the field if his rehabilitation goes well.
Kuridrani’s injury was overshadowed by the controversial homophobic slur which led to the ‘Tahs flank Jaques Potgieter being fined AU$ 20 000.00 by the ARU.
The Brumbies will most likely look to backs James Dargaville, Henry Speight or Nigel Ah Wong to fill the outside centre spot.
Kuridrani’s set back will force Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham to make the only change to the backline so far this season, for the Brumbies clash against the Cheetahs on 4 April.
“Depending on how he gets through, he’s likely to be out for 2 months,” Larkham said.
“We’ve got a number of options there.
“There’s Dargaville, Henry Speight has played a bit of No 13, Nigel Ah Wong is coming off injury, Jesse Mogg is back and Lausii Taliauli as well as Rod Iona.”
The Brumbies suffered just their 2nd defeat of the season so far in Sydney, against the Waratahs.
A victory would have seen them make a considerable leap clear at the top of the Australian conference, but the Waratahs are still within arms-length.
Waratahs coach Michael Cheika believes the Brumbies are a “grand final team”.
“To play well against them is something that is pleasing for us, but also there’s a part of us that knows that improvement every week is good, but we have to keep it going,” Cheika said.
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